Chapter 5: What kind of a color is ARRRGGGHHH anyway?

Summer with the Weasley's turned out to be a lot more interesting than summer with the Dursley's, though there were some similarities. For example, the standing rule was "no magic in the house" along with, "no hexing your siblings." However, as Fred and George put it, "we view those as more like guidelines." Which they proved by enchanting Ginny's shoes to make gagging noises when she tried to put them on, protesting that her feet were too smelly. In response, Ginny demonstrated that she was quite good with Grandma Hettie's wand already by using the Bat-Boogey hex on her brothers. All this happened while everyone was still inside, which nearly gave Mrs. Weasley a conniption.

"ALL OF YOU OUT!" she roared as boogies flew about the house on slimey wings. "AND DON'T COME BACK IN UNTIL LUNCH TIME!"

"Come on, let's play quidditch," Ron suggested.

"Do we have enough brooms?" Harry asked, doing a mental count. "There are six of us."

"Oh, we've got enough brooms," Percy said. "But it can just be the four of you. Ginny and I aren't interested."

"Speak for yourself, Princess," Ginny said. She ran over to a shed and pulled out the Cleansweep 9 Harry had given her for Christmas. "Harry gave me my own broom."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "You're going to join the flying circus this lot will create?"

"I'm going to beat them all," Ginny vowed.

"Come on Percy, you, me and Ginny versus Ron and the twins," Harry suggested. "One keeper and two chasers on each team."

"You sure you want to do that, Harry?" Ron asked, smirking at Ginny. "I don't know that Gin-Gin even knows how to fly."

Before Ginny could get her wand out and hex Ron for his stupidity, Harry managed to calm her down. "Just trounce him and prove you're a better player," Harry suggested.

As it turned out, Ginny could in fact play quidditch. Percy, however, was hopeless. Harry was an excellent chaser as was Ginny, and together the two of them tore up the field, easily outmaneuvering Fred and George on their superior brooms. The twins were much more interested in causing mayhem than scoring points anyway, and found the entire situation enormously amusing. Ron, however, was a pretty good keeper, and made up for his team's lackluster offense. In the end, it was a close game that ended when Mrs. Weasley called them all in for lunch.

"Harry dear, I hemmed all your clothes so they would fit you better," Mrs. Weasley said as they all sat down for sandwiches and freshly made chips with a pitcher of cold punch. She held up one of Harry's previously too baggy pants, which looked as though they'd fit him decently now. "I also dug out some of Charlie's old things, he was skinny as a rail just like you are. See if they fit you. We are going to have to do something about your glasses though."

Harry's glasses were several years old at this point, and rather battered and held together more by tape, faith and hope than their original frame.

"Nothing for it, we'll have to go to Diagon Alley. I talked it over with your father, that is, Mr. Weasley and he said we may as well make it a family trip for school supplies early on this year."

When she said it, Mrs. Weasley looked very concerned, as if she were dreading it.

"Diagon Alley isn't so bad, I don't mind," Harry said. Mrs. Weasley smiled and turned back to her sandwiches.

"She's not worried about the trip, Harry," Percy said quietly. "It's the fact that we'll probably have to buy you new ones."

"Oh. Well, I can get those for myself," Harry said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his bottomless coin bag, spilling out the remains of the years spending money: one galleon, a handful of knuts, and ten sickles. "Is this enough for glasses?"

"Oh, Harry dear, since we're taking care of you I wouldn't dream of making you spend your own money on something like glasses!" Mrs. Weasley protested.

Harry shoved the money towards her. "Take it, I've got loads more where that came from. Besides, it's not like I have anything else useful to spend it on."

"Well, perhaps just this one time," Mrs. Weasley allowed, thinking of the rather poor state of the family finances with the addition of yet another mouth to feed and back to clothe. While she and Mr. Weasley had never allowed the expense Harry would incur to factor into their decision to take him in, they still had to consider what it would do to the family budget.

"You know, you've mentioned you had a vault of your own before," Ron said suspiciously. "But you wear the same kinds of clothes we do and only your school stuff looked new. I always figured you got that from the school orphan fund or something."

"Just come to Gringotts with me when we go to Diagon Alley," Harry said. "I never took any money out to buy things for home because if I did my aunt and uncle would have tried to steal it from me."

Fred and George actually stopped eating and glared at Harry. "We would never steal from one of our own!" they protested.

"Well, except maybe some of your chips," George amended, grabbing one off of Harry's plate.

"But nothing really valuable," Fred agreed, swiping his own chip.

"Oi, get your own!" Harry said, reaching over to try to nab some off the twins plate. His heart wasn't really in it though, this was a lot more food than he had ever had from the Dursleys and he was mostly full already. "I didn't say you would steal it. I said my horrible relatives would. I think they'd try to get me back if they knew I was rich, and that would be awful." Harry suddenly had a bright idea, not seeing the dirty looks his new siblings were giving him. "What if you all took the money and put it in the Weasley vault instead? Then my stupid Uncle could never get it off me."

The dirty looks were immediately replaced by guilty ones. "What do you mean, Harry?" Percy said, feeling pretty silly he'd been resenting the fact that Harry was in fact, both rich and famous a moment ago.

"Well it's simple really. Mum and dad, that is, your parents, can take what's in my vault. Then they could use it to buy us all new clothes and school stuff."

"Absolutely not!" Mrs. Weasley declared, glaring at Harry as she finally sat down with her own meal. "We're not beggars. We have our pride. The Weasley family would never accept charity from someone, especially a poor boy like you who hasn't anyone to look after him. People would think we were just trying to use you for your money."

"But you always said it wasn't charity if they were family," Ron said slowly, studying Harry with a calculating eye. "And we adopted Harry."

"No, we haven't," Mrs Weasley said. She paused and looked around with a slightly guilty expression. "Actually, it would probably be best if you don't mention that Harry is staying with us. It might ruffle a few feathers with some of the other families with much closer blood ties to the Potters, like the Malfoy's. Narcissa Malfoy is closely related to Harry."

"I think I'd rather live with the Dursley's than the Malfoy's," Harry said, shuddering. "Can you imagine living with Draco? I think I'd run away."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Lucius Malfoy had been having a lovely day. First, he woke up and had breakfast, then beat his house elf because his eggs were just a tad too runny. Then, he read the daily prophet, and beat his house elf because it hadn't been folded quite right. Then, Draco had come in for breakfast, excited that they would be going to see a quidditch game, and beat the house elf because his eggs were not done just right. Narcissa did not, of course, beat the house elf when her breakfast was not done right. Draco was more than happy to do it for her.

Yes, everything had been right with the world, until a strange man showed up at the front door.

"Ah meister Lucius Malfoy, I presume?" the man said in a very nasally voice. His face was covered by a purple neckerchief, and Lucius attempted to slam the door shut in his face, but he stuck out a foot.

"Whatever you are sell, we don't want any," Lucius snarled.

"Lucius you blithering idiot, open this door at once!" the man said in a much more sinister tone.

Pausing, Lucius frowned at the man. "Do I know you?"

"It is I, Lord Voldemort! I have returned, and have come to claim what is rightfully mine!"

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Oh, yes, I'm certain you're the Dark Lord, I can tell by your love of the color ARRRGGHHH!"

"Actually, his favorite color is green, be told be so himself!" the original voice said as the man stepped inside.

"No, I do think I rather how 'argh' looks on dear old Lucius."

Groaning, Lucius sat up and clutched at his right forearm, where his dark mark was burning.

"Master, I apologize, but I did not recognize you," Lucius gasped.

"Of course not fool! I am using this man as my vessel to herald my glorious return! Now, where is my diary?"

As quickly as he could, Lucius retrieved the diary of Tom Riddle and brought it to his master, who was sitting in the kitchen and eating the remainder of Lucius' breakfast.

"These eggs are excellent! My compliments to your chef!" the nasally voice said, smacking his lips.

"Silence fool, we are not here for breakfast, but for the key to my glorious return! Ah, yes, the diary. Give it here, Lucius."

Lucius quickly handed the diary over, then stepped back to stand beside his family in the corner. Draco was pale, and Narcissa's knuckles were white she was clinging to her son so tightly.

"Hmm, yes, this will work. But how...Ah! Draco, come here, child."

"Y-y-y-y-es professor Q-q-q-q-uirrell?" Draco stammered, stepping forward.

"I have a gift for you, Draco. A most wondrous gift that will make you the most powerful and splendid of my followers and bring your family eternal glory. Take this diary and write in it every night, starting upon the eve of your return to Hogwarts. You're returning to school in a few months, aren't you? Perfect. Yes, yes my ingenious plan will come together quite nicely. Make sure you write in it, and your rich rewards are assured."

With that, Voldequirrell stood and left, leaving behind an empty breakfast plate for Lucius.

Once they heard the door shut, Draco held the dairy out at arm's length. "Do I really have to write in it, father?" He demanded.

"Sweet Merlin no," Lucius said. "Just pass it off to some other child when you get to school. I'm sure it will do what the dark lord wants, then you can take credit for it later."

Draco nodded, feeling slightly relieved. He was pretty sure whatever was in the diary wasn't going to be healthy for whoever did write in it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/

Once the Malfoys had finished giving Dobby the House Elf his "I'm feeling rotten and need someone to blame" beatings, he popped right over to the home of the Great and Glorious Harry Potter.

"Oi, I'll have your mum mate," a cranky voice said from near Dobby's ankles.

Dobby shrieked and jumped away from the gnome that was attempting to hump his legs.

"You wot mate? I swear on me mum-"

With a snap of his fingers, Dobby sent the gnome sailing through the air away from him. With a nod of satisfaction, Dobby stepped out onto the overgrown and weed infested back garden of Number 4 Privet Drive. Sneaking through the weeds, Dobby accidentally stepped on a rake, which snapped up and slammed in him the face.

"Ow!" Dobby gasped, stepping backwards and rubbing his very long nose. "That was hurting Dobby."

"Oh I'll have you unnatural little bastards this time!" A voice roared. A muggle with a beat red face and a trembling walrus mustache bearing a cricket back slammed the door open and rushed out into the yard after Dobby.

With a squeak of panic, Dobby raced away, but stopped when the muggle stepped on the rake himself. It slapped him square between the eyes, and with a groan the muggle dropped the cricket bat and toppled over, right onto a gnome that had been hiding in the weeds.

After a moment, the gnome wriggled out from under the fat muggle and started kicking at him. "What the bloody hell did you just freaking say about me, you ugly git? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the aurors, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Death Eaters, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the-"

Dobby blinked. This was not normal behavior for muggles or garden gnomes as far as he knew.
"Harry Potter must be a very great wizard to cause such strange things to happen," Dobby reasoned.

Creeping inside, Dobby snuck past the shrieking muggle woman who was trying to chase of the gnome with a frying pan.

Inside, Dobby found a very fat boy who could only have been the great Harry Potter staring at the magical muggle box that made the funny noises and showed the bright lights.

"Oh, Dobby is so pleased to finally meet the Greatest and Most Wonderful Wizard of our Age!" Dobby squeaked.

The fat boy turned, looking at Dobby through glazed, slightly piggish eyes. "Huh?"

"Dobby has a very important message for Master: yous must not be going back to Hogwarts.

"OK." The boy turned back to his magic box, now ignoring Dobby.

This slightly surprised Dobby. He had expected Harry Potter to protest more, to insist on being a hero. "You promise Dobby not to be going back to Hogwarts?"

"Yep. Not going back to Hogwarts."

Dobby blinked twice, bowed, then vanished with a snap, feeling both elated and disappointed.

Interestingly enough, Harry Potter wouldn't be going back to Hogwarts.

The newest Weasley, on the other hand....

\/\\/\\/\/\/\\/\/\\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Going to Diagon Alley with the Weasley family was great fun for Harry. While he personally had been unable to sneak off to his Gringotts vault, Fred and George had been more than happy to do the job of playing the part of both Weasley twins. It had actually been hilariously simple: whenever mum called one of them, the other just responded for both.

"Oi, beaky face, I need to get into Harry's vault," George (or possibly Fred, even they were not sure 100% of the time) said.

The goblin glared down at him. "Do you have the vault key?"

"Right here," George said, holding it up. "Come on, mum can't keep miscounting her children all day."

"Hmm, this does seem to be in order," the goblin agreed, narrowing his eyes at the young man in front of him. Was this Harry Potter? He did have the vault key, but he seemed a bit older. Bah. Humans all looked the same to him anyway.

Inside of Harry's vault, George couldn't help but goggle for a moment at the massive mound of gold. There were thousands of galleons in the vault, easily more money then Fred had ever seen before in his life. "Bloody hell, and Harry just gave me the key," George breathed. Then he shook his head and started scooping galleons into the bag. Once had had about six dozen, he jumped back into the cart.

"Right, that was pretty good the first time, but honestly, from what I heard these things were bloody terrifying. Can't you make it go any faster?"

The goblin blinked, then grinned. "I think I might be able to manage something. What about a bet, human? First one to vomit on the cart ride owes the other a galleon."

It took somewhat longer to come back out of Gringotts vaults than it did going in, probably because of all the detours the goblin took George on. In the end though, they arrived back at the top floor, where George stepped out, slightly disappointed. "Well, that wasn't quite as tame, but honestly I was hoping to at least feel a bit ill. Thanks for the galleon!"

"Urg," groaned the goblin.

Deciding that even though it had been Harry's money he'd gambled that he'd properly earned that particular galleon, George pocketed it and hurried back to the second hand bookstore where he'd left his family. They were still sifting through boxes, looking for the various textbooks they'd need. Normally they wouldn't have to, but Gilderoy Lockhart was the new defense professor and even with mum's already complete collection they still needed a few sets. George sidled up to one of his brothers and hissed. "Oi, Harry, I got-" he paused. "Oops, sorry Ron."

Ron just grunted.

Finding the correct ginger this time, George handed over the sack of galleons. "Here you go mate, fresh from the vaults."

Harry reached into the bag and took out a galleon. "Here, for you."

Not questioning the morality of this, George happily accepted his payment. That was two galleons, more money than he'd usually get in a whole year!

"Now take this and slip into mum's purse," Harry ordered, handing over ten more galleons.

"First time for everything I suppose," George mused. He caught Fred's eye, held up the galleons, nodded at mum, then grinned. Fred grinned back and reached into his pocket, pulling out a snake they'd caught in the garden earlier. He slipped it into a bag and thrust it towards Percy. You would think it was Ginny who'd be squeamish around snakes, but she'd probably laugh and pet the thing. Princess Perse on the other hand...

"Oi, Perse, this one of the books you're looking for for your OWLS?" Fred asked.

Percy, God bless him, actually reached into the bag to look. "Which one did you- EEEEEK!"

George stifled a laugh as the snake slithered up Percy's sleeve, and moved in while mum stormed over to mete out justice. While she was raging, George quietly slipped two galleons into mum's purse, then planted a three more onto Fred. His twin had seen the whole thing, and nodded his understanding; they'd have to do it one or two at a time, or she'd get suspicious.

"-right out in public! It's one thing to be misbehaving at home, but not while others can see! They'll think we're nothing but a bunch of yokels who don't even have proper manners! They'll be no pudding for either of you for a week if it happens again!"

"But mum, it was just George this time," George said, pointing to Fred (probably) and sticking out his lower lip.

She whirled and glared at him. "Just because I didn't see you do it doesn't mean you weren't in on this George Weasley! And don't go trying to confuse me, I know you never give the proper names for yourselves!"

Actually they did sometimes, if only to throw her off.

"Pst, Ginny, Ron, c'mere," Harry whispered as they looked through second hand robes in the back of Madam Malkin's.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"Come on, Percy's going to distract your mum for a bit and we're going to nip down to another shop," Harry told them.

"Why?" Ginny asked, holding up a set of second hand robes that was in decent shape. "I do need new clothes."

"Because you've got your grandmother's wand and Ron has Charlie's which used to be Great Uncle Norbert's," Harry explained. "So we're going to Ollivander's to get you both proper wands."

"But Harry, wands are expensive," Ron protested. "How can you-"

Harry held up a sack and jingled it a bit. "Think of it as both of your birthday presents. Come on."

When they walked into the shop, Ollivander took one look at the group, muttered, "Ah, yes, more Weasleys," and hurried off.

"You might present a bit of a challenge my dear, I don't have much experience with Weasley daughters," the old man said as he set a stack of boxes on the counter. For Ron, he just handed over several wands of varying lengths and colors. "You though, young man, there is no question. Unicorn hair for certain, just find the one that you suit best."

"Don't you mean the one that suits me best?" Ron said, waving one of the wands.

"If I had meant that I would have said so."

It took only three wands to find Ron's, but Ginny proved far more difficult. After half a dozen wands, Ollivander ruled out unicorn hair cores. "Hmm, tricky, what about phoenix? Lucky, just like a seventh child," the old man mused.

Seven phoenix wands later and Ollivander ruled those out as well, sweeping them away and hurrying back. "Oh, tricky, tricky. Never had a Weasley who needed dragon heartstring in their wands before, not even that boy who had such an affinity for the beasts, what was his name? William?"

"Charlie," Ron supplied. "You're thinking of my older brother Charlie."

"Ah yes, unicorn hair, 10 ½ inches, cherry. How could I forget?" Ollivander handed over several more wands for Ginny, who started waving them about, until one let out a bright gout of red flame.

"Woah," Harry breathed, staring at Ginny wide eyed.

"That was scary," Ron commented.

Ginny sniffed. "Bloody brilliant is more like it."

"You seem to have found the correct wand," Ollivander mused. "Yew, dragon heartstring, 12 inches even. Very powerful, but quite volatile. You'll have your hands full with that one."

"Sounds like it suits me just fine," Ginny declared, then flushed. "Only, I don't know how I'm going to pay for it."

"No problem," Harry assured her, pulling out his bag and dumping it on the counter. His siblings eye's popped at the sight of the pile of galleons, but Ollivander just nodded and started counting out the money.

They were just about to pay when the door banged open.

"HARRY JAMES WEASLEY WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!" mum roared.

All three children jumped about twelve inches in the air and came down with completely guilty expressions on their faces.

"Oh, um, just finding birthday presents for Ron and Ginny," Harry said, trying to smile innocently and mostly managing to look slightly manic instead.

Molly glanced at the pile of galleons on the counter and blanched, then came over to kneel by her newest child. "Harry, dear, we can't be taking your money. It just wouldn't be right. It's our job to provide for you, not the other way around. You're only a child: I won't have you wasting your inheritance."

Harry's face flushed, not with anger, but with guilt. "I'm not wasting my inheritance! I'm making sure that my brother and sister have proper wands, so that the next time we accidentally end up dueling Sleepy the Wonder Turban-"

"Who?" mum interrupted, looking even more confused than usual.

"Oh, you know, Quirrell and his houseguest, Voldemort," Harry answered.

Mum turned faintly green, her mouth forming a small "o."

"And anyway, they're birthday presents. You wouldn't tell Ron and Ginny they can't have their birthday presents, would you?" Harry pointed to his siblings, who immediately put mournful expressions on their faces and made their eyes as wide and innocent as possible.

Sadly, having seven, make that eight, children makes one rather immune to puppy dog eyes. "That doesn't change the fact that it's your money Harry," Mrs. Weasley said, scooping the galleons back into the bag and handing it back to Harry.

"No." Harry said, trusting the back at Ron and Ginny, who took it with a shocked expression. "It's our money."

"Harry-"

"No, listen," Harry said, tears coming into his eyes. "Do I get to call you mum or not?"

"Well of course dear, you can-"

"Then you get to act like my mum! If the money is sitting in my vault at Gringotts it doesn't do anyone any good, does it? Look, I don't want us to all suddenly get a Nimbus 2001 or brand new robes or new books or whatever, but a wand is really important. If you're going to be my mum then you need to look after the money too. And since it's the family money, we get to spend it on important things for the family. Please, mum?"

It was the broken look in Harry's eyes, the look of a boy who'd never really had a mum before, who'd slept in an old cupboard and never had anyone to tuck him in at night that broke Molly's resolve. "Well, alright, just this once I suppose," she reluctantly agreed. Then she pulled Harry into a tight embrace.

Ron and Ginny cheered, and passed the bag of galleons back to Mr. Ollivander, who frowned at the excessive display of emotion in his shop, but counted out the money again just the same.

"Does that mean we get new wands too?" Fred and George asked.

Harry grinned and winked at them from over their mother's shoulder. "Just promise me that you won't use them to prank me for at least a year."

"Ouch, you drive a hard bargain Harrykins."

"Make it no pranking anyone in this family and I'll allow it," mum growled, standing and turning around to glare down at her sons.

Fred and George considered it. "Does that count Ginny?"

"Hey!"

"Alright, alright, we agree. No one in this family get's pranked with the new wands."

Everyone sadly failed to realize that for people as creative as Fred and George, coming up with wandless pranks was just an interesting challenge.

/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

On the morning of July 31st, Harry awoke early, feeling somewhat nervous. The Dursleys had never taken much note of his birthday in years past, aside from occasionally giving him "gifts" such as a 50 pence piece or old clothes. He knew money was tight for the Weasley's though, and did not expect much in the way of gifts. He was, however, at least hoping that the Weasleys would acknowledge it was his birthday.

He snuck down stairs, going into the kitchen. On a whim, Harry started cooking breakfast, cooking from memory one of his personal favorite things: Oat scones with honey and raisins. He was careful not to make much noise: the twins would prank him mercilessly if he interrupted their "beautify sleep."

He was just forming the scones on a tray when there was a soft noise behind him. He turned to find Mrs. Weasley making her away down the stairs, still in her night gown. "Oh, Harry, what are you doing up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," Harry said, turning back around and plopping dough on the pan. "I'm making scones."

"Well thank you dear, that's very kind of you. Here, let me take care of the washing up."

It felt rather nice to cook with Mrs. Weasley, the two of them working side by side in companionable silence. Once the scones were in the oven, Mrs. Weasley made Harry sit down and made him a cup of hot chocolate. "Happy birthday dear," she said, kissing him on the top of his head and going back into the kitchen as she made sausage and eggs to go with the scones. Harry flushed, enjoying the drink and quietly deciding that this was the best birthday he'd ever had.

Not long after, Ginny awoke and made her way down the stair. Unlike most of her brothers, she was actually a bit of a morning person.

"Morning. Happy birthday," Ginny yawned, taking her place at the table next to Harry and getting her own cup of coco.

The rest of the Weasley brothers trickled in, all wishing Harry happy birthday and plopping themselves around the table.

"Good morning Weasleys," Mr. Weasley said cheerily, coming down to breakfast last dressed for work. "And happy birthday to you, Harry."

"Thanks," Harry said.

Mrs. Weasley bustled in, hot scones on a platter. "Well, as a special treat today Harry made us all scones with raisins and honey."

"He's not trying to poison us, is he?" Fred asked, taking a scone and popping it in his mouth.

George swallowed his own scone and blanched. "Yewg! Horrid, I recommend none of you eat any of this rot."

"Too right; you'd best let us have it, save yourselves the bother." Both twins reached for more scones, stuffing them into their mouths and making gagging noises.

"Stop it you too," Mrs. Weasley said, smacking them both on the back lightly with a wooden spoon as she laid out the sausage and eggs. "Harry, the scones are lovely."

"Thank you Harry, these are very good," Percy said, spreading butter over his own scone. "Where'd you learn to cook?"

"I used to have to cook for my relatives," Harry explained. "They'd get grumpy if I didn't do it just right, and then I wouldn't be allowed to eat anything, so I got pretty good at it."

"You know, everytime I start feeling guilty about hexing those muggles shrubberies you remind me just why we did it," Mr. Weasley observed. "I can't imagine who thought it was a good idea to leave you with them."

At Hogwarts, Dumbledore sneezed loudly. Professor McGonagall had to keep herself from saying "I told you so" but was not sure why.

"Harry dear, I hope you don't mind but I invited Hermione Granger over for your birthday party today," Mrs. Weasley said as she sat down.

Harry's heart leapt, and he quickly nodded. "Yeah, that sounds OK." Inside, he wa cheering.

The rest of the day went fairly normally: Mr. Weasley left for work, and everyone had chores to do before they were free to play. Harry's chores for the day consisted of making his bed, feeding the chickens, and collecting the eggs. Compared to what he'd had to do with the Dursley's it was practically nothing, and it was actually a lot easier than cleaning out the pig pen or milking the cows. Usually the harder chores went to Percy, Fred, and George, as they were better with the more advanced magics. Eggs safely collected and hens pecking in the yard, Harry ran off to check on Ginny's progress in the garden.

"Finished with the weeding yet?" Harry called, peering over the stone fence.

Ginny stood and nodded, dusting her filthy hands off. "Yeah, good enough for now. Fancy a race through the orchard? We can both use the old shooting stars, that way it's fair."

They both hurried to the broom cupboard, grabbing brooms and flying off into the orchard. Percy waved at them as they flew by, his wand out as he performed some growing and pruning charms on the apple trees.

"Need a hand Percy?" Harry called once they'd done a loop around the orchard.

"Sure, why don't you and Ginny land and I can teach you both some basic horticultural charms. These are a bit different than the ones used in herbology; they've been passed down the Prewett and Weasley family lines."

While Percy got a bit pompous as he lectured his younger siblings, both Harry and Ginny rather enjoyed learning the special magics and practicing them. The morning was part way over when Ron and Hermione came over to join them.

"Oh, what charms are those, I've never seen them? Oh, and happy birthday Harry!"

"Family secrets," Percy said, waving his wand loftily. "It's only proper I teach you and Ron a few of them; it's my duty as the eldest brother."

"Sod off Percy, Bill and Charlie are both older than you," Ron grumbled.

"Well, they aren't here, are they? Now, as you can see, these apples are just now blooming. To help attract bees and such, you'll want to use these charms...."

Once the trees were taken care of, the twins came over from their work with the pigs and cows and joined in a game of hide and seek around the burrow. The only rule was no wands, though Harry was fairly certain the twins were cheating somehow as they always seemed to find each other first and coordinate far better than they should have.

"Well that's just our mystical twin bond at work Harrykins."

"Yeah, that's how I knew George here was dead during Ronnikins little chess match."

"But I thought it was Fred who got hit, and he wasn't dead," Harry protested.

"Details. Never trouble us with the details."

As the sun sank lower in the sky, all the children were called to the garden, where Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were waiting. Harry stopped at the gate, looking in shock at the enormous cake in the shape of a golden snitch, lit by twelve candles.

"What, do you not like it Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked, sounding slightly nervous. "I wasn't sure if I should do the snitch, or a broomstick, but-"

"It's perfect," Harry said, slowly coming forward, not taking his eyes off the cake. "I love it."

Everyone gathered around and sang happy birthday, cheering for Harry as he blew out the candles. It all felt so surreal. It had been such a perfect day, and Harry looked around at his family, smiling as he did so. To go with the cake was a large shepard's pie, filled with vegetables from the garden and a lamb that Mr. Weasley had slaughtered the day before. To drink Mr. Weasley had gotten a keg of butterbeer, which Harry sampled for the first time and adored.

After the meal there were even presents: Harry got a new pair of trainers from his new parents, the first set of unused clothes he'd ever owned. From Ron, Harry recieved several chocolate frog cards, including the prized Morgana Ron had finally obtained on the train ride home. Ginny had made a throw pillow embroidered with cross brooms. Fred and George gave Harry a certificate for "one free prank" which Harry was pretty sure mum was going to confiscate as soon as she could. Percy's gift was a picture of the two of them together after Harry had caught the snitch in the Hufflepuff game, Harry sitting on Percy's shoulders while he held the snitch up triumphantly. And of course, Hermione gave Harry a book: Beating the Bludgers, a book of quidditch strategy.

As he sat at the table, surrounded by people who loved him and holding his new things, Harry felt tears trickling down his face.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Percy asked, putting a hand on his chosen brothers shoulder.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong at all. It's perfect."